CalWatchdog Morning Read – November 21

• What Trump means for teachers union
• Split between CA Dems’ success and national Dems’ failure
• Wind and solar hope to appeal to Trump
• Six areas CA and Trump may battle
• Brown not yet fully embracing role of opposition to Trump 

Good morning. Happy three-day week. He hasn’t even picked his team yet, but everyone is trying to figure out what a Trump presidency will mean. While it may not be immediately apparent, Trump’s victory a few weeks ago has deep implications for the balance of political power in California.

Because of his win, there could soon be a fifth vote on the U. S. Supreme Court – again – to conclude that teachers at California public schools can’t be compelled to pay union dues to the California Teachers Association in support of political activities with which they disagree.

These dues have made the CTA arguably the most powerful force in state politics, able to win passage of bills increasing taxpayer funding for the state teachers’ pension system, protecting teachers’ jobs and making it difficult for their performance to be evaluated. 

At a January hearing in the Friedrichs v. CTA case, five justices – conservatives Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and libertarian swing voter Anthony Kennedy – appeared poised to allow teachers to opt out of CTA dues.

But in February, Scalia died. In March, the court deadlocked 4-4 on the case, and in June, it declined to hear the case again in the term that began in October.

Trump has promised to appoint a justice with Scalia-like views as his replacement. That presumably would mean five votes to put limits on what public employee union dues could be used for.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “At a moment of unprecedented dominance in California, Democrats woke up on Election Day to a painfully changed national landscape, raising sharp questions about how poorly their approach to outsized success on the west coast is translating in vast swaths of the nation’s interior,” writes CalWatchdog.

• “Wind and solar power proponents hope to appeal to Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s desire for economic growth to persuade him to support their industries. Their business means jobs, they say, and the president-elect promised lots of new jobs.” The San Bernardino County Sun has more. 

• The Sacramento Bee looks at six areas where Trump and CA may frequently clash. 

• Gov. Brown may be the face of opposition in CA against Trump, but he hasn’t fully embraced the role yet, writes Politico. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.

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